‘Sophie Scholl – The Final Days’

This story about a modern-day German martyr is based on recently released transcripts of the Gestapo interrogation.

By: Josh Appelbaum
   In a brutal dictatorship, sometimes the most mundane act can prove heroic. Sophie Scholl (1921-1943) didn’t resist the Third Reich by sabotaging rail supply lines or by any other such heroics, but was martyred thanks to a trivial, if brazen, act of rectitude.
   Her means of resistance was both unsophisticated and passive — she helped distribute anti-government leaflets of the White Rose movement — but her youthful exuberance led to her own conviction and execution, as well as that of several others in the group, including her brother Hans. Scholl is a hero to modern Germans, and her story underscores the void of conscience inherent in the laws and culture of Germany under Hitler.
   Marc Rothemund’s film follows Scholl in her final five days of life, and depicts with cold calculation the ruthless efficiency with which her prosecution was mounted — a show trial was conducted and the punishment meted out. The director’s account is informed by recently released case documents that had previously languished in East German archives.
   We meet Sophie (Julia Jentsch) as a biology and philosophy student at the state university in Munich in 1943. There, she lives with Hans (Fabian Hinrichs) and leads a seemingly normal life, considering that the nation is gripped by the "Total War." She sings along to broadcasts of American popular music with her friend Gisela Schertling (Lilli Jung), and awaits the return of her boyfriend, who is serving in the army on the Eastern Front, and writes letters to friends relating the harmonic qualities of compositions by Franz Schubert.
   Her brother is more overtly political, and decides to distribute anti-war leaflets at their university, in addition to mailing them to recipients whose addresses the group culls from phone books. The morning of Feb. 18, 1943, the siblings left neat stacks of pages outside classroom doors over six floors of the university’s opulent main hall. Finished distributing the last stack, Sophie thoughtlessly pushes a pile from the top-floor ledge, letting the pages rain down on the students, who are passing to their classes. A janitor with ideological allegiance to the Reich makes a citizen’s arrest of Sophie and Hans, who are ultimately charged with high treason.
   What follows is a tightly woven police procedural, told with dramatic efficiency from Sophie’s point of view.
   Also bound by his duty to Hitler is Robert Mohr (Alexander Held), a good-cop, bad-cop all-rolled-into-one inspector who tries to sweat Sophie down under hot lights. Watching Sophie construct an elaborate alibi while trying to shield Hans and other more central White Rose operatives, you get the sense that she is transformed by the experience.
   Jentsch is chilling in her portrayal of Sophie — who presents herself as apolitical to Mohr — capturing the nuance of a seemingly ordinary woman who assumes an uncompromisingly stoic stature in the face of the gravest consequences.
   The narrative is sometimes weighed down by its focus on the minutia of Mohr’s investigation; the inquisition is governed by sadistically draconian Nazi laws and, as such, is most compelling when seen through the lens of conscience. Inspector Mohr has a 20-year-old son on the front lines, who he says is sometimes given over to "crazy ideas" about the regime, which we are led to believe mirror Sophie’s. But he believes ultimately in the rule of law, no matter how immoral it may be. By simply enforcing the letter of the law, he understands she will be condemned.
   Rothemund and screenwriter Fred Breinersdorfer place Sophie at the periphery of the White Rose movement, and what gets lost in the context of their account (and possibly the historical interpretation) is the extent of the victims and the intricacies of their associations. An epilogue tells of a dozen White Rose youths who were executed, and still others who were imprisoned.
   Once a Hitler Youth and an attendee of a National Socialist university, Sophie was not the typical rebel. Mohr insists Sophie and others that have the opportunity to attend universities owe a debt of obedience to the Reich. One can also draw the conclusion that participation in the National Socialist system is one form of complicity in its crimes.
   After the largely ceremonial trial, replete with screaming Nazis and a useless public defender, Sophie is granted a short meeting with her parents. Her father (Jorg Hube) says she and Hans "did the right thing" and he is proud of them. This statement is made moments before he knows he will lose both of his children to a regime that imprisoned him and that he hates.
   Sophie’s religious piety and the faith she has in her own conscience mocks the Blood Religion that helped the Third Reich and espoused "ultimate victory." As she is led to the guillotine, she tells her captors, "Your heads will fall as well." In accounts of the execution, it was said Sophie met her execution with great courage. Rothemund allows the film’s victim her dignity, even as her body, as stiff as a board, is slid under the guillotine.
Sophie Scholl — The Final Days will be screened with Latent Sorrow at the New Jersey International Film Festival 2006, Scott Hall 123, 43 College Avenue, New Brunswick, June 2-4, 7 p.m. Admission costs $7, $5 seniors/students. For information and a full schedule of screenings and special events, call (732) 932-8482. On the Web: www.njfilmfest.com